I am not sure what I've done to my leg but on the side of my lower right leg near the knee, I am having pain when trying to do any exercise moves with intensity. I plan on switching back to Leslie Sansone workouts for a week or so until my leg feels better.

My main question would be...at the moment I am averaging 1350-1400 calories daily with 5 days of exercise at 90 minutes each day, do I need to lower my caloric intake any since I am lowering the intensity of my workouts?

answer 2 no. you need to shock the body you may gain a little weight but its the bodies chance to repair any damage caused through training. i.e muscle wear and tear etc a week of it is ample.

first question bit hard to advise without a more specific location anything near the knee is worth consulting your doctor about as the knee area has lots of connective tissue around it. if connective tissue is the issue its need attention asap or it could be a long lay off.

if its just muscular it could be your movement pattern or not enough rest

I agree that if you can possibly get to the doc then you should. Ice, hot pad, elevate, massage (the outside of my knee hurts sometimes and a light tapping with my fingertips type of massage usually helps), epsom salt in a hot bath, tylenol or something - try these things if you can't get to the doc. I think you've got the right idea on switching to the Sansone stuff - stopping using it altogether might just make it stiff and you'd hurt even more. I also wouldn't worry about lowering the calories if the lowered exercise is just going to be short term. If the doc tells you that you need to lay off for a longish amount of time then you could revisit the question of lowering intake at that point. For now the extra calories might help you heal. Hubby says that an increase in red meat in your diet might help - it apparently helps him when his knee acts up.

For a new age / hippy idea - you could try giving your dog some extra petting and loving. They say that petting and cuddling our pets helps us heal. It can't hurt and is certainly a pleasant experiment.

Michelle, I wouldn't lower your calories just yet. And if you still experience pain during WATP, definitely check in with your doctor. If there is something wrong; you don't want exercise to exacerbate it.

The seriousness of your pain really depends a lot on your age. Once you get beyond 50 you start getting pulled, strained muscles fairly frequently and the best way to get rid of it is to exercise it gently, like swimming for movement rather than cardio. That said, I had a pain in my knee, actually for several years, and when it got really bad I went to the doctor and found out I had osteoarthritis and had to have a hip replacement a couple of years later. The hip pain was referred to the knee. I used to walk a lot when I was overweight and I guess that caused the damage.

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Thanks Robin. It is feeling some better. I have been alternating ice and heat and today I have done no exercise . I think when I was doing plyometric lunges yesterday I may have twisted something or..something, heh :|